We can only have LH on steam atm. When the game is finished will we be able to have a Stardock copy or will LH be Steam only?
It's Steam only. Stardock switched to that after FE- doubt they'll switch back barring some unusual circumstance.
I hope so. I detest Steam. Nothing useful in exchange for endless compatibility and stability problems.
I believe LH is Steam only and there will not be a non Steam version.
You can purchase it from a number of places, but it will always be a steam code that needs Steam to download and install it.
Right now, I seriously doubt they'll ever do a standalone release of this game. There's absolutely zero upside for Stardock. Steam just works.
Based on my own experience and reading posts here, the beta (including Steam distribution) has so far gone incredibly smoothly. Nobody who is playing the game is complaining about Steam. Not to dismiss the concerns of those (like EffBie) who hold a negative opinion of Steam for whatever reason, but right now stability and compatibility are just not issues.
Honestly, if the LH beta continues in this fashion, I would be stunned if Stardock didn't use Steam for all its releases going forward.
that's a shame, looks like Stardock will not be getting any more money from me.
I had horrible problems with steam in the past (2006/2007) slowing down my computer and crashing, and I hadn't used it since then. I was upset and angry when I learned stardock planned on releasing LH via steam. I was completely anti-steam going into the beta. However, I gave steam a chance, and so far the experience has been pretty good. The first weekend I had it, I didn't have my steam credentials saved on my computer and I went out of town with no internet, so I couldn't play. Also on two other occasions steam has acted crazy, and prevented me from playing for a short while, but nothing like what I experienced before. I still have some reservations about steam's game ownership model (can an update go out that kills the game remotely? what happens in the highly unlikely scenario that value goes out of business?), but from a practical/does it work standpoint LH on steam is fine.
I'm pretty sure that is why Stardock still has you create/login to an account, this way they have a list of all the registered owners of LH.
I love Steam, been using it since beta days shortly after HL 1 came out. Never had an issue, never had it crash, never had any problems with it messing up my games. I guess some people know how to use software and some people....don't. It is funny watching my mom use email once in awhile, she might have a hard time with steam.
I tolerate Steam But what many publishers/developers forget is that there are many people who hate Steam just enough, for them to pass on the game.
Unfortunately, it's a trade off developers are willing to make. Using Steamworks solves numerous issues for developers and publishers that would be costly or difficult to solve on their own.
In the same sense that we will, unfortunately, lose some customers when future titles are 64-bit only, we are going to have to live with the fact that not everyone will be willing to use Steam.
I don't think anyone would accuse me of having tried really really really hard to make sure there was an alternative path.
and yet the lack of that alternate path is a harsh reality. regardless thank you for Elemental/Fallen Enchantress.
I have never had an issue with Steam, nor with Impulse (which was once Stardock's baby). I *do* strongly dislike when one retailer sells a game which actually needs Steam, but this has nothing to do with Steam itself, as I have no actual issues with Steam. In fact, in the past couple years, I have been going out of my way to replace older, physical game copies I have with Steam DL copies.
However, the thing I like most about steam is summed up in this two-sentence bit from Frogboy:
Any time a developer can turn to an existing mechanism for distribution/dissemination of a product/updates/fun extras, that's time they don't spend working on their own systems for same, which is time and money they can spend on the content, rather than the logistics pipeline. Which generally means a higher quality (or, at least, cheaper) product for us, the end users.
Steam's game updater isn't very informative. It doesn't say 'Your preferences have been reset' it just fires up the game and has me deal with it. Which likely as not means having to restart the game to alter, for example, the AA setting. Tell you what, I'll just not bother. I'll go play something which doesn't require so much hoop-jumping.
I know that must seem such a petty nitpick and prefs resets don't happen that often. But just as developers like to spend more time making games, gamers like to spend more time actually playing them, and not needlessly fiddling with the knobs and buttons. Or frowning and wondering 'why does my input lag so?'
I think it's incredibly savvy of Stardock to have their own accounts tied to Steam, too, in the event Steam is a problem. Not that Steam is perfect, but as someone who was on the Impulse bandwagon prior to the sale to Gamestop, my transition from that to Steam has been seamless. I don't blame Stardock for using it- it's very convenient, works well (I've only had 1 or 2 issues in the three years of using it), and like Brad said, it solves a ton of other issues. Not that DRM isn't without it's issues, but the implementation by Valve and their support (and that of developers) is amazing.
The big question for Steam (and sorta for Stardock) will be the impact the Microsoft Store may have on it over time. Windows 8 hasn't exactly been a firestorm of popularity, but if Windows 8.1 and future versions are good and adoption increases, alternate stores like Steam will have a harder time competing. I just don't want my games on Windows to become unplayable in the near future!
That's not Steam... that's Stardock making changes to the settings/preferences files, which replaces them with default copies.
I love steam as much as anyone but I used steam when it first came out too and it crashed almost every time I used it back then. It has come a long way but in the start it was as awful as anyone says it was
So this means LH will be Steam only? If so thanks for the info and sadly it becomes then one of the games I never will play (like the last Firaxis Games) but anyway good luck.
LH is STeam only, though the game can run without STeam (but doesn't launch without Steam) My guess is a crack when the game is finished patching will take out Steam DRM entirely if you're worried about that. Brad has been quoted as saying if something happened to Steam he'd make sure the folks with the game don't end up screwed. (no idea what that exactly is)
I strongly suspect the Steamworks is largely for distribution and market purposes, DRM considerations aren't a factor in this (though I wish Stardock would prove this by a truly DRM-free version)
I absolutely hated steam back in the HL2 days, i bought the game and it forced me into steam and i hated it so much that i never played HL again. Fast forward a few years to Empire Total War, i bought it not knowing it required steam... but i am such a total war junkie i figured i'd try it anyway and not return the game. I'm glad i did because i loved that game lol
But steam just worked and i didn't even notice i was playing through steam, i didn't have any of the performance issues or bugs that i had before. Since then i've purchased well over hundred games through steam and haven't ever really had any issues. You can still play your steam games without internet connection as long as you activate your game when you have an internet connection.
Also i honestly don't think i would have even heard about fallen enchantress if it wasn't for them putting it on steam.
So i have no issues with steam but understand some hold grudges and just simply hate steam.
Then, if steam is the new source for Stardock games, are we going to get a steam key for our Stardock FE downloads? To keep things neat, so to speak.
If you bought direct from Stardock for FE, you can't/won't get Steam keys for it. Brad's commented on that before. I'm not sure if it's a cost or a logistics issue, but unfortunately that won't happen.
On the positive side, downloading from Stardock directly is easy and I think you could still add it as a game in Steam so people could see you're playing it, even if it's not a Library item.
I have zero problems with Steam, and I like the fact that it auto-updates games for me.
Nevertheless, I dread the moment when the company will go out of business and my games will suddenly disappear.
The day Valve goes out of business is the day the Internet as we know it ceases to exist = P
If Valve goes out of business, won't I just play those games in offline mode? I mean if Valve just magically disappeared Raptured or whisked away by aliens or some shit, I would just play my games in offline mode. Until fairly recently, I didn't have wi-fi, so I played my games on my laptop in offline mode just fine.
I thought you have to go online every couple of days? Moreover, how you gonna install those games?
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